World briefs

US soldiers were asked to disarm before a speech by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in a sign of growing concern over spates of seemingly random violence in Afghanistan. Less than a week after a US staff sergeant allegedly massacred 16 civilians in Kandahar, American soldiers were banned from bringing guns into a talk by Mr Panetta at a base in Helmand province. About 200 troops who had gathered in a tent at Camp Leatherneck were asked abruptly to file outside and lay down their automatic rifles.

The Telegraph

Standard Chartered, the UK bank whose earnings from China doubled last year, said its private-bank relationship manager Wu Yidian Eden has been detained by police in the Asian nation. Chinese authorities are investigating a client of Mr Wu, a naturalised Singapore citizen, who allegedly fled with as much as $US50 million from Agricultural Bank of China. Bloomberg

South Korean liquefied natural gas imports rose 50 per cent from a year earlier in February even as the average price paid climbed 41 per cent. The North Asian nation, the world’s second-biggest buyer of LNG, purchased 4.7 million metric tons of the power-station fuel last month compared with 3.1 million tons a year earlier, data on the Korea Customs Service’s website showed. Bloomberg

A South Korean minority party that last week joined a coalition with the main opposition vowed to repeal a free-trade agreement with the United States if it wins control of Parliament in elections next month. The United Progressive Party said it would propose a parliamentary agreement nullifying the FTA, the biggest US trade deal since 1994 that went into effect yesterday. Bloomberg

Imran Khan
, the Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician, has pulled out of a conference in Delhi because of the expected attendance of
Salman Rushdie
. The Guardian

Oil refiners’ investment in more- efficient facilities is leaving shipping lines competing with Japanese power producers for a fuel that no one wants to make. Refiners are upgrading plants to cut output of fuel oil, a by-product from making petrol and diesel, as it sells for less than the price of crude. Shipping lines are seeking more of the product, known as bunker fuel, to power expanding fleets.Bloomberg